EPFL Rolex Learning Center panorama, 19.03.08

Taking two large format high resolution shots, using the full movements of the Sinar camera for each single image, was the basis. Stitching together 52 RAW files resulted in the following panorama

I am sorry, but you have to scroll a bit left and right. The hi-res files is 24800 pixel wide, by the way.

Stay tuned …

Peter

Stitching huge amounts of images

Now that the camera works pretty well, I spent some time and energy to optimize the post production of the huge amount of images that have to be stitched together in order to get the final digital large format photograph.

Photoshop CS3 e.g. is doing a good job in terms of the output quality. I’ve been stitching 20 to 30 full resolution .tif files (RAW conversion with Capture One). But the amount of resources in terms of free RAM and time is considerable.

A dedicated software for this job is Autopano Pro. It comes for Windows, Mac and Linux, is very reasonably priced with 99 Eur and convinces with a breathtaking speed during the whole workflow:

After selecting the input files, Autopano analyzes the files in order to find the matching panorama. Rendering and the blending of neighboring images in order to have one seamless image goes remarkably fast.

For more sophisticated projects a huge amount of manual functions allow all the freedom in order to obtain the optimum result.

My conclusion: Highly recommended !

EPFL Rolex Learning Center panorama, continued

We are slowly approaching …

the kind of panoramic image I had in mind, when I decided to jump to digital large format photography. Today’s conditions were perfect, and I tried to keep everything well under control talking about adjusting and setting of the camera.

Main main point of concern is always the adjusting of the focus. The following two 100 percent crops show that this works really fine now.

No manipulation in Photoshop was undertaken on these images, besides the massive stitching procedure of course. The original file is a 9600 x 2600 pixel image.

Even for this camera the construction site is too large. The left side was captured in another photograph – still to be post processed.

Stay tuned …

In the field – architecture shooting

After all the “technical shots”, demonstrating more that the setup works, I would like to show you a small architecture series now. The location was exactly what I had in mind: A clear modern architecture with lots of verticals and horizontals, as this is a good play ground in order to check out the possibilities of the camera.

One special feature of this camera is that the freedom to chose the final image aspect ratio is endless ! The first image shows a nice panorama of the site. The final image consists of three rows of five frames each. The aspect ratio is 1:2,5 in this case – a nice wide view.

With 1:2,2 the aspect ratio is very similar in case of the second image. Here four rows of images were used for the final shot.

Going away from the panorama format the third shot has an aspect ratio of 1:1,5. Here four rows with three frames each are photo-merged.

The squared format is and was one of my favorite approaches since many years. The last two shots come up with an aspect ratio of 1:1,1 and 1:1,2. Five rows of images are used in these cases.

There is still room for improvement also on the technical, or I should better say “operating the camera” part of the game. As each shot is made from a huge amount of single frames, one tends to speed up the shooting procedure by e.g. not locking the lever which blocks the movements. This is potentionaly dangerous ! As the two standards are close together, the tension via the bag bellow is rather serious. Once the movements get to the extremes either in shifts or rise/falls, also a swing of a standard can accidentally occur with the nasty effect that the focus for these frames is slightly changed. In the worst case this can spoil the whole shot.

Another thing I will try out in the near future is to have a laptop on site and check the first test shots directly on site. Adjusting the focus is the tricky part. But in case you got it right, the amount of detail is amazing: In the third shot one can spot a logo engraved in one of the glass panels, looking at a RAW file at 100%.

As I already said, if you want to shot quickly, this is not the way to go for. Fixing all levers shot by shot helps to get the maximum quality out of it.

Stay tuned ….

EPFL Rolex Learning Center panorama

Despite the nasty conditions, namely a strong wind and some decent snow fall, I went up to my favorite location – a roof facing the construction site. In order to have my camera gear at least a little bit protected, I did not go all to the front. So please don’t critic the disturbing barrier in the foreground of the image. It’s still more about the technical aspects.

This panorama is merged from ten RAW files, resulting in a total width of 14495 pixel and a height of 2800 pixel. If you click on the thumbnail you see only ten percent of the total image ! The full horizontal camera movements were used, namely plus minus three cm around the central image. In addition to that three more frames shifted additional three cm to the right hand side were partially used: After substantial cropping due to major shadowing the “concrete mixing tower” (I have no idea how that one is called using the proper term) on the right side of the image was gained like this. Using the magnifying angle finder and taking a few test shots the focus is nicely set this time.

The crop of the crane is not resized and shows the real resolution and sharpness of the original image file. I would again like to stress that working on ten RAW files at once requires reasonable computing power. Camera side wise I am happy to have a working setup now. A fully documented list of the equipment is coming soon. For now, I hope to be a bit more lucky with the weather, as a “nice” photograph is not only technically ok but also artistically interesting ….

As usual, Stay tuned …

science meets beauty

“Analyzing data !” Most of us would probably think about huge computer centers, filled up to the roof with high tech equipment. Not so long ago data analysis for a particle physicist meant carefully studying huge photographs, showing the traces of hundreds of particles.

The core component of CERN, the huge circular accelerator with its 27 km circumference is still the same. 11.000 times per second a bunch of particles is making its way around.
Here indicated by a few red LEDs.

Meanwhile the tunnel is filled with several thousand beam pipe sections forming the LHC, the Large Hadron Collider. Two antidromic high intensity particle beams with just the diameter of one’s little finger are interacting in four different points around the ring. Each of these underground caverns is filled with a dedicated purpose particle detector, aiming at answering the big questions of scientists today: What happend a fraction of a second after the Big Bang ? Can we describe all phenomena using one great unified theory ? Can we detect the famous Higgs Boson ?

Detecting and reconstructing the particle trajectories is the common feature of all the high energy physics experiments at CERN. Thousands of ultra fine metallic wires form a matrix which allowed to reconstruct particle trajectories in space in this multiwire proportional chamber.

Not only scientists, also artists from all over the world are fascinated and feel inspired. Photographers, too ….

EPFL Rolex Learning Center, Mar. 2008

Here my first experiences with the 135mm lens and the “EPFL Rolex Learning Center project”. Despite nasty weather conditions I was on the roof of the neighboring building to give it a try. In order to push the panorama a bit in height, I mounted the camera in vertical position this time. The image consists of two rows, with 2 left (max. shift 30 mm) + 1 center + 2 right (max. shift 30 mm)= 5 frames each, resulting in a total of 10 frames. The most outer ones showed already serious shadows, which made it necessary to crop some ten percent.

The image here is far from being satisfactory. Nevertheless I show it here, in order to point out the problems:

* The horizon was not carefully checked (I corrected this in Photoshop) !
* The focus is not perfectly set to infinity. The control only in the view finder is a bit tricky. Today with rain and wind, I dod not cross check carefully enough
* Most dramatic: In the upper row one shot is missing on the left side.

This example shows clearly that this kind of photography demands to work very slowly, taking enough time to check all necessary steps. In addition the file sizes are getting – let’s call it demanding – in terms of computing power. The image has a final size of 10800 x 7700 px, which would result in a 180 x 130 cm print at 150 dpi. 2 GB of RAM better 4 GB are strongly recommended.

I will repeat the session as soon as possible, taking above points into consideration and most of all installing the camera in horizontal orientation again.

Stay tuned ….

digital large format landscape photography

Dear all,

I am in a good mood, as I got finally the missing bits and pieces together to have my digital large format camera equipped for landscape / architecture photography. Why am I making such a big fuzz about that !?

Quick reminder: As I am using a DSLR attached to the rear standard of the Sinar F, the CMOS sensor is apparently located further backwards as one would have the plan film. This causes difficulties in terms of “focusing to infinity” with all lenses that can not be brought close enough to the sensor plane due to mechanical constraints. My Super Angulon 90mm lens would be one of these problematic candidates.

Visiting a local second hand photo market today, was a good idea: I could acquire a wide angle bag bellow and a Schneider Kreuznach Symmar 1:6,8/135mm lens. A good combination, as I found out. The above image – not too interesting from the artistic point of view, I admit that right away, consists of five single shots. Shifting the rear standard, we have two shots to the left and two to the right from the central image.

Here the advantage of this kind of camera comes into play: As the lens and obviously the scene are not moving during the total series of shots, practically only the rear standard with the DSLR attached is kind of scanning the image plane, which is of course much larger than the size of the CMOS sensor. The single images are completely distortion free and allow an easy “photomerge”.

Conclusion: I love it ….

PS.: Stay tuned.